Choosing Your Home Resort - What to Consider?

Add "Sentimental Reasons" - some people feel a strong attachment to the resort they spent their honeymoon at - or the one they first took the kids to.

My adivice is to make a matrix of all the attributes and rank them - zero to ten - ten being most important to you - zero being the things you can't understand why anyone would care about. Then score each resort against the attribute - and this is completely subjective for a lot of these attributes. Then multiply the weight by the score, add them up - and the highest ranking resort is "home" - unless you look at the result and say "darn it - I was hoping for VAKL" - in which case you have learned where your heart lies.

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This is a good idea as well.

I THOUGHT we'd want to buy-in at BLT. We bought last August, and BLT wasn't for sale yet, so we bought at AKV. Although I wasn't "in love" with AKV, I'm very glad we did. At the time it saved us about $2,000 since the price was raised for BLT and they didn't have the incentives at the time. We've already had a 2BR stay at SSR, and my DD also had a studio stay at SSR. AKV is growing on me, style-wise...the more I see, the more I like. So while I THOUGHT my heart was at BLT, it's not anymore.

Your likes/dislikes may change over the years...what's important now, may not be so important in 10 or 20 years...life changes.

All the resorts are different, and I'm finding that I like many of them...so far! I guess we fall into the category...buy where you don't mind staying...since we don't really care where we stay (at least for the time being).

"Keep in mind that if you have more than one home resort, all vacation points being used to make a reservation during the Home Resort Priority Period must be associated with that home resort. That is, you cannot combine points from multiple resorts to book one resort during the Home Resort Priority Period. You may combine all the points you have at all your home resorts and book any DVC resort only at the 7-month window."

Thank you for telling me this. That just helped me make up my mind to stay w/all my points @ BLT.

I just bought @ BLT and was told the UY is Feb. I would rather have Aug. Is it possible to switch?

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If you haven't signed the contracts or are still in your period to recind the purchase then yes, you should tell your guide that you would like August. If you have closed on the purchase then you will not be able to have the contract rewritten and Disney cannot change the UY.

If you haven't signed the contracts or are still in your period to recind the purchase then yes, you should tell your guide that you would like August. If you have closed on the purchase then you will not be able to have the contract rewritten and Disney cannot change the UY.

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No I have not signed yet, I just received my paperwork today. We usually got to WDW in July, so that is why I am thinking of changing my UY. Right now my UY is Feb. I need to learn more about UY to help me decide the right thing to do.

No I have not signed yet, I just received my paperwork today. We usually got to WDW in July, so that is why I am thinking of changing my UY. Right now my UY is Feb. I need to learn more about UY to help me decide the right thing to do.

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Then yes, you will be able to change. Just call your guide and they will send out new paperwork.

HOWEVER - if you travel usually travel in July then August is the last UY that you would want!!!!! For UY you want to have one that will allow you to cancel a reservation and still be able to bank your points if necessary.

If you travel in July then a June or July UY will be best. February will even work out ok b/c you would have until Sept 30th to bank your points.

Then yes, you will be able to change. Just call your guide and they will send out new paperwork.

HOWEVER - if you travel usually travel in July then August is the last UY that you would want!!!!! For UY you want to have one that will allow you to cancel a reservation and still be able to bank your points if necessary.

If you travel in July then a June or July UY will be best. February will even work out ok b/c you would have until Sept 30th to bank your points.

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Thank you so much for the info. I have been trying to figure out the UY pros & cons. I will probably leave it at Feb.

Thank you so much for the info. I have been trying to figure out the UY pros & cons. I will probably leave it at Feb.

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Your welcome!

The UY you choose will really have an affect only in the instance that you need to cancel a reservation. A Dec (July 31 banking), Feb (Sept 30 banking), Mar (Oct 31 banking), Apr (Nov 30 banking), Jun (Jan 31 banking) or July (Feb 28th banking) UY would work out for you since the banking deadlines are currently 8 months after the start of your UY.

The other thing you might want to think about is if there are any other times you might decide to travel to WDW. Travel habits can change but I do think that a person should get a UY that they expect to be best for unexpected situations.

Just to try and help your understanding if you purchased an August UY but had a July ressie that you needed to cancel after March 31st then you would be unable to bank your points (b/c Aug has a March 31st banking deadling) and since August UY points expire on July 31st you might have anywhere from 4 months to only a few days to try and use your expiring points.

Personally - If I thought I would always travel in July for many years I would go ahead and switch my contract from Feb to either June or possibly July.

Our main UY is Oct b/c we like to travel in the fall, Dec and Spring. The 8 month banking window spans all of those timeframes so we have maximum flexibility should we ever need to cancel a reservation.

Thanks for the info Kat on UY and the ramifications if you have to cancel a trip. We want to take a family trip each year at Thanksgiving and then a trip for just the wife and I at some other time. If I have understood you correctly, then a UY of Aug-Nov would be good for us? Thanks again.
Bill B

Thanks for the info Kat on UY and the ramifications if you have to cancel a trip. We want to take a family trip each year at Thanksgiving and then a trip for just the wife and I at some other time. If I have understood you correctly, then a UY of Aug-Nov would be good for us? Thanks again.
Bill B

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Yes, those will work well for travel at Thanksgiving and easily allow you to bank the points if you had to cancel or at least provide you with several months to use the points before they expire. Then the other factor will be the other time you might travel with your wife.

Aug UY have a banking deadline of March 31st
Sept UY have a banking deadline of Apr. 30th
Oct UY have a banking deadline of May 31st

After reading this I realize we began as buying where you wouldn't mind staying. Our son lives on room service and I enjoy concierge plus the great incentives induced us to purchase AK. We have since made additional purchases - one for DH and one for me. Pretty sure we're done.